Longtime Folsom High coach Stan Harms, a source of light and inspiration, dies at 83
Stan Harms was so fond of any weathered red-and-blue keepsake from his beloved school that he had a request in his final hours.
On his way to the hospital Tuesday, sensing his time was near, the famed Folsom High School basketball coach from 1978 to 1995 asked his daughter to stop by the closet to pick up anything bearing Bulldogs colors.
She did. The old coach draped an old T-shirt over his lap. Harms embraced his role of coach and mentor, and he radiated a room right up to the end. Harms died Wednesday of natural causes. He was 83.
“Dad was always wearing something Folsom basketball because the man didn’t throw anything away,” daughter Amanda Harms-Shebest said with a laugh and a cry. “I found the 1985 state championship T-shirt, because he was never too far from those memories.”
Harms was one of the region’s classy champions and charismatic characters, a hugger and hand-shaker during and after his coaching and teaching career. He was everybody’s friend.
“Oh, I was just a simple old coach who tried to teach the game the right way,” Harms told me one of the last times we ran into each other.
Of course, the fellow known as “Stan The Man” was much more than that.
Harms guided that 1985 Folsom team to a 34-2 season and the CIF State Division III championship, the only area team to do so as an at-large Northern California entry. But winning didn’t define a player, a team or a coach, Harms would say, nor should it. Harms was big on integrity and playing with fundamentals and effort. He would stress to coaches during retirement that you coach in practice and then manage the game.
Harms would regularly bump into me at area football or basketball games, always in old Folsom garb, and share thoughts of coaches, players and crowds. Why go to so many games in retirement, coach?
“Because I love people!” Harms said.
People gravitated to Harms. In his final years, Harms was a regular at the Starbucks in Loomis, holding court as a story teller. That Starbucks staff, in an effort to boost his day, made a YouTube video expressing appreciation and thanks for his charm — and for leaving them so many golf balls.
Harms was born Dec. 7, 1937 and grew up in the region. He played multiple sports at San Juan High in the late 1950s, graduated from San Jose State and earned his master’s in engineering at Sacramento State.
“Played against Stan when he was the quarterback at San Juan, a great player, a fun guy,” said Max Miller, a decades-long friend and a Sac-Joaquin Section Hall of Fame football coach. “Stan always made you feel good.”
Harms worked for a spell at Aerojet but was drawn to teaching. His first such gig was at Mitchell Junior High in Rancho Cordova, where he would proudly say of NBC News anchorman and Rancho Cordova native Lester Holt, “I taught that kid!”
Harms taught math for decades at Folsom, where he retired as a teacher in 2007. He made a tough subject all the more tolerable because he was such a simple people person.
“I can’t ever think of a time when Stan wasn’t happy and positive because he looked for the silver lining in life and in every day,” said Peter Maroon, the athletic director for the Folsom-Cordova Unified School District. He first met Harms while teaching at Folsom in 1993. “My memory of Stan was old school — polyester white paints, red sweater, a V-neck. That was Stan. He loved to build people up. He called everyone, ‘beautiful.’ I asked him why he did that once, and he said, ‘I want people to shine.’”
Maroon witnessed a shining example of the Harms touch in 2000. After Folsom beat Grant in a Sac-Joaquin Section Division II playoff game at Arco Arena, under coach Ben Palafox, players raced into the dressing room and hurriedly got dressed so they could watch the next game. Harms was a basketball backer then, the program’s No. 1 fan.
“In comes Stan, and he puts his hands up,” recalled Maroon, an assistant coach on that 2000 team. “He told everyone to just stop, to form a circle, to lock arms and embrace the moment. He gave words of wisdom, that everyone would remember this moment for the rest of their lives — the details, the smell — and don’t be in such a hurry. He was right. Just slow down and enjoy it.”
Amanda, the old coach’s daughter, added, “The most profound thing Dad ever told me was something when I was in nursing school. I was eager to get started working, and he said, ‘Don’t wish your life away. Be in the moment.’ He was right. Be grounded. Let today be today.”
Mike Wall took over as Folsom’s basketball coach in 2001 and elevated the program to new heights with a string of championships. His mentor, Harms, became a dear friend.
“I came to Folsom to coach in a community that embraced the school, a throwback, where the community went to games, and Stan was the epitome of that spirit,” Wall said. “Over the years, Stan would come to games, talk to the kids, to me, the coaches. He stayed a part of the program, and we were honored.”
Wall was so touched by Harms and his impact that he had Folsom’s annual holiday tournament changed to bear Harms’ name this past season. It was Harms’ last public adulation. He was surrounded by former and current players, family, faculty and friends, the proud coach in his element.
“Dad loved people more than anything,” his daughter Amanda said.
A celebration of life ceremony is pending.
This story was originally published April 10, 2020 at 8:14 AM.